by 11.4 on Fri Nov 11, 2016 5:25 pm
A disc rear and 5-spoke front, whether Mavic or FFWD or another brand, is a good professional-level solution but may be more than you need. And do be careful of some of the less expensive versions -- they don't offer the benefits that the Mavic Io/Comete combination have made famous.
Dura Ace and Phil Wood make superb track hubs with traditional threading and cog designs. The Dura Ace are very smooth and the hubs are stiff; the Phil's can be upgraded from the factory with low-friction bearings, but frankly, hub bearing resistance is the least of your issues here. Don't get anything more than 32 hole and consider something more like 24/28 as workhorse track wheels. I'd tend to steer clear of some of the fixie-oriented hubs because they either use nonstandard cog designs or are designed more with cosmetics than FEA-like design criteria to be sure they're bulletproof. People have criticisms of the traditional threaded track cog, but on the track it works and additionally, on the track you want to be able to borrow a cog as needed and most people will have traditional threaded cogs. Used equipment is also much cheaper that way as well, and you'll be compatible with discs or 5-spokes that only come with threaded cog setups.
On rims, don't go too high in profile. You'll find that on steep banking they tend to flex a bit across the sidewall, and that's quite unnerving. You have to buy high quality or track-specific high-profile tubular rims, but even then it's not necessarily as useful as something that is stiffer with a more moderate profile. And if your track isn't indoors, you can run into a crosswind every lap and high profile rims will give you handling problems.
At this point in your track career, you don't need to upgrade wheels like you might want to on the road. Track tends to be raced -- short of the elite level -- on pretty basic equipment, and fast wheels can look more poseur than appropriate.
